daugher@cs.tamu.edu (Dr. Walter C. Daugherity) (07/27/90)
Sun Microsystems is now shipping a new low-cost RISC workstation with color. This will be hard to beat, so the sooner NeXT starts shipping their color graphics upgrade, the better! The Sun SPARCstation IPC has the same performance as the SPARCstation 1 Plus (10.0 SPECmarks, 15.8 MIPS, 1.7 DP Linpack Mflops), comes with a 16" color monitor (other monitors available as options, up to a 19" 1600 x 1280 high-resolution one!), 8 MB of memory (expandable to 48), a 1.44 MB 3.5" IBM-compatible floppy drive, thick and thin ethernet ports, 2 serial ports, SCSI-2 port, and an audio I/O port. Commercial prices are $8995 with no hard drive or $9995 with a 207 MB internal hard drive. Educational discounts are typically around 20%, I think. 2100 software packages are available, including Lotus 1-2-3, Word Perfect, DBase IV, and Ventura Publishing. IMHO this will be the one to beat for DEC, HP/Apollo, et al., in addition to NeXT. Come on NeXT! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walter C. Daugherity Internet, NeXTmail: daugher@cs.tamu.edu Knowledge Systems Research Center uucp: uunet!cs.tamu.edu!daugher Texas A & M University BITNET: DAUGHER@TAMVENUS College Station, TX 77843-3112 CSNET: daugher%cs.tamu.edu@RELAY.CS.NET ---Not an official document of Texas A&M---
daugher@cs.tamu.edu (Dr. Walter C. Daugherity) (07/27/90)
In article <1990Jul26.222508.4299@midway.uchicago.edu> phd_jacquier@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes: >.... >[Many features of the new color Sun SPARCstation IPC are] >available on SS1+ > >.... I don't see how it fits with the SS1+. >What's the difference between this station and the SS1+ ? >I got some information last week from SUN about the SS1+. >One can only put one (or two) 104MB internal >drives in it. Otherwise, it's a 327MB EXTERNAL drive. I was not told of any >207MB internal drive available from SUN, and not for 1000 dollars!!! >This station seems to have all what the SS1+ has, and more, for fewer >dollars! >Is this just the SS1+ with a lower price? >Or, are they simultaneously dropping their prices on the SS1+? > The IPC is in fact a "clone" of the SPARCstation 1+. It is packaged for minimum price, and consequently lacks the expandability of the SS1+ and the graphics performance of the SS1+GX. Also, the serial ports on the IPC use DIN-8 connectors and thus don't have enough pins for some synchronous serial modems to use SunNet and SunLink products. (An additional SBus board could support them.) You are right about Sun (and NeXT, unfortunately) overpricing their disks (and memory too!). Sun must have realized that high-end PC users (the obvious market for the IPC) would not pay their usual prices for more disk, and cut their price for an internal hard disk accordingly. However, the IPC expansion drives are still overpriced ($1700 for 104 MB, $3700 for 327 MB, and $5100 for 669 MB). The 207 MB is physically different so I don't know if it could be used in a SS1+. The IPC has 12 SIMM sockets versus 16 on the SS1+, 2 SBus slots instead of 3, and capacity for only 1 hard disk instead of 2. >>2100 software packages are available, including Lotus 1-2-3, Word Perfect, >>DBase IV, and Ventura Publishing. > >If it has the same architecture as the SS1+ and other SPARCS, then DOSwindow >is available from SUN and one could even run all DOS software in there. I don't >know if there is a limit on the number of DOS windows that can be opened. > > >Eric I don't know either. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walter C. Daugherity Internet, NeXTmail: daugher@cs.tamu.edu Knowledge Systems Research Center uucp: uunet!cs.tamu.edu!daugher Texas A & M University BITNET: DAUGHER@TAMVENUS College Station, TX 77843-3112 CSNET: daugher%cs.tamu.edu@RELAY.CS.NET ---Not an official document of Texas A&M---
daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (07/27/90)
In article <1990Jul26.222508.4299@midway.uchicago.edu> phd_jacquier@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes: >>Commercial prices are $8995 with no hard drive or $9995 with a 207 MB internal >>hard drive. >One can only put one (or two) 104MB internal drives in it. Otherwise, it's a >327MB EXTERNAL drive. I was not told of any 207MB internal drive available >from SUN, and not for 1000 dollars!!! The SS1 internal drives are plain old 104MB Quantum drives. No need to buy them from Sun, methinks. Probably not necessarily from Quantum, either; any reasonable standard-sized SCSI drive would most likely do. I think the trick Sun's using here is one of the new higher density Quantums. They have a 100MB or so drive now that's about 1/2 the thickness of the original SS1 drives. A 200MB drive using the same technology would certainly be no thicker than the original SS1 drives, so it would still fit in the space set aside for a SCSI drive on the SS1, and most likely any other machine with space for a 3.5" SCSI. Right now, there are SCSI drives up to around 400MB that fit the 3.5" form factor that have at least been announced. >Eric -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy The Dave Haynie branch of the New Zealand Fan Club